Alexander Roth
Alexander Roth is the protagonist of the third Subterraneans installment, Subterraneans West. He is a drug addled mechanic working for a pittance at Steel Touch Vehicle Repair living much of his life in grief and regret. Profile Physical Appearance Alex can be described as a throwback to the early days of grunge era Seattle. He is a quite normal looking every man. Standing at 5'9" with an ectomorphic build, Alex appears as average as your local drug addict. Because of his former addiction, Alex always has a sickly appearance to him. His skin has a ghostly pale complexion. His eyebrows were thick but not entirely bushy or too well trimmed. Somber dark brown eyes clouded Alex's face, only to be overshadowed by his dark eye bags from years of sleep deprivation and drug addiction. He has a cleft chin, a stubbly 5 o' clock shadow with a more darkened and pronounced blonde goatee and mustache. His hair was a defining feature of his character. Alex would have shoulder-length dirty blonde hair that drooped over his right eye lightly. His hair was uneven and typically stylized to be as messy looking as possible. It is also to be noted that Alex has a three bullet hole tattoo to the upper right side of his neck. He wears a piercing on his left eyebrow. Attire Alex's attire is shown to change and be much more varied than his other Subterranean counterparts. An absolute core piece to Alex's wardrobe and general attire is his silver studded cross necklace. His outfits vary from a distressed white and black checkerboard flannel, dark blue torn jeans, and black and white high-top canvas shoes to a more defined military styled olive parka jacket, ratty blue jeans, a red and black checkerboard flannel and mahogany colored boots with black soles and ends. Over the course of the story, he eventually wears distressed denim vests and button up shirts/hoodies of varying colors. He can even occasionally be seen rocking a skully or a black distressed compass baseball cap. Personality It would be easy to see Alex as the archetypal rebel against societal norms and standards judging off his dress sense, lack of care for his physical well being, nihilistic outlook, and musical taste; but all of these couldn't be farther from the truth. The core of Alex's personality is that of a neurotic young adult trying to get his life together in some way, but always ruining it in another. Before the serious drugs and bad habits, Alex was shown to be a very caring young man and a deeply empathetic person. He had a very let live and let loose kind of spirit to him, and a good sense of humor. He was a very cheery and relaxed young man. He could be a bit of a whiner and a slight pessimist at his worst moments. A defining characteristic of Alex is his undying loyalty to his friends and family. He often took care of those who he deemed were off worse than he was and often times sympathized with any who have done him wrong. He was always willing to forgive and look over most issues. He doesn't like confrontation and would do anything in his power to avoid it. Alex would become a empty husk when he was an addict, forgetting about any of his responsibilities and seeking the highest thrills from whatever he could try. He loved the feeling of being dull and emotionless because it would put his world on pause and he'd have time to just savor his high. He became irresponsible, greedy, and lacked care for those who showed him genuine compassion. He would take advantage of any he came across if it meant he could get another shot of heroine or some cigarettes. His mindset was engulfed in his own care-free lifestyle that anything aside from it was hard to adapt to. The addiction to heroin Alex suffered with eventually ruined many of his old friendships, his job, and familial ties. It wasn't until he truly lost everything where he realized he was his own biggest enemy. Biography Early life & Background Alex was born to his mother Mary and father James Roth in Tacoma, Washington during the late '60s. His parents were at one point habitual drug addicts, addicted to LSDs and other psychedelic drugs. They were both apart of the hippie counterculture, in fierce opposition to the on-going Vietnam War, and were staunch supporters of the Civil Rights Movement. James and Mary met during their late years of high school and have been in an on and off relationship during their many years together, eventually they would repair their relationship and quit drugs after accidentally conceiving Alex. Mary became a botanist and worked as a local florist while James worked at a car wash until he began studying mechanics and later quit to join a vehicle repair company. They struggled, but eventually would find a decent home for themselves in Tacoma. Despite their pasts, they did everything they could to ensure Alex would turn out right. During his early years, Alex was raised in a particularly liberating household where he was free to express himself any way he wanted to with his parents. His parents were barely home due to the fact that they were constantly working, but Alex did develop a somewhat close relationship with each of them. Alex particularly looked up to his father as he took a mutual interest in mechanics and sports like baseball and football from his dad growing up. He was raised to be an open minded, particularly tidy, and free spirited young man and it carried well into his adulthood. Teen Spirit Alex became very independent as he grew up. He was a quiet, yet decently popular kid during his high school years. Much like his mom and dad, he entered the on-going punk/skater counterculture at the time as they did during their adolescence. He worked with his dad in repairing vehicles since he was sixteen and would eventually be employed part time as a source of income for himself. For the early part of his teens, Alex was a productive kid. The problems with his life didn't start with either his family or his home; it was his surroundings. While he lived well, Alex was conflicted. He just was not having fun with his life, he had money, he had stability, but he yearned for something more. Alex was heavily associated with three kids growing up; Edward "Eddie" Brooks, Samuel Miller, and Jaque "Jax" Martin. Alex met Jack when he was thirteen as both shared math class and had similar musical tastes, Eddie became friends with Alex during his sophomore year of high school in their shared art class and bonded over their love of outdoor activities, and met Samuel after being introduced as a friend of Jax's. The four of them would dub themselves the "Big Four" of Stadium High. They each had an incredibly tight relationship and would often hang out during the late hours of every weekend. Alex's parents were so preoccupied with work that they'd hardly check on their son. Alex started to see his father as a boss at his job than an actual father during his later years of high school and his mother was almost never present at home because she overworked herself. Each of his friends all had broken homes, Jax especially with his parents actively going through a divorce and he suffered from a physically abusive father and exploitative mother. Jax became associated with gang related activity outside of the group due to the ties his cousins had and got involved with the opioid market sometime after junior year. Jax became a frequent party goer and would involve the other members of the "big four" to join said parties. Alex was at first hesitant but it seemed like the perfect escape from his mundane and professional lifestyle. Together with the other members, they would go to parties and get completely wasted on drugs and alcohol. Down the Hatch & Down the Rabbit hole Alex's first vice was alcoholism; enjoying the numbness and vulgarities of being intoxicated and having much fun with just letting loose of all his anxieties. The more parties he went to, the less he'd be home, and the more drugs he got into as a consequence. Around his late teens and early twenties, Alex's parents began to notice Alex's vices and sought to help him out of them, but Alex consistently broke their trust. This led to James both firing and kicking Alex out of the house and job after spending hours arguing with an intoxicated Alex. Alex spent much more time with his friends and was particularly under Jax's affluent and crime filled wing. Around the late '80s, Jax got Alex an apartment in Seattle along with Eddie and Samuel where they would practice getting high and drunk all day. Originally all Jack asked of the other three to do in return was just "push product" for him. This consisted of him getting his friends to do drug dealings and make a certain amount of money every week to return to Jack. Alex was on board at the start as it felt like easy living, Edward and Samuel howver disagreed with this lifestyle heavily. Eddie and Samuel grew apart from Jax and left the apartment early, while Alex stood behind Jax as they had been close friends for years. Eddie and Sam would be proven right as Alex grew tired of the quotas for Jax and instead began seeking the thrill of getting high off of Jax's product. This introduced Alex to heroin, his biggest and deadliest vice. At the start, Alex would use some of his left over money to fund Jax while getting high off of his heroin. Alex would run out of his money and started selling his valuables just to turn profit. Alex's other friends fared no better initially. Edward was arrested for drunk driving and almost mortally wounded a young woman; this action caused Edward to turn to rehab in prison and align himself with god. Edward's family would pay his bail,and he'd soon join the military right after for a short tour during the Gulf War. Samuel would become addicted to meth and nearly died from it until he enlisted himself in rehab. Sam would end up making a band with some former addicts he had become friends with naming them the Skeevy Ravens. As his friends' lives got better, Alex's got worse. His declining mental and physical health due to drug addiction and his deteriorating relationship with Jax, Alex's life was running into an all time low. Jax got tired of Alex's resistance to cooperate with him and when he realized that talking to Alex wasn't working; he had no other choice but to force Alex to see reason. He began to beat Alex, threatening him for his money and to snap out of what he's become. Alex would lie completely numb to the pain, leaving a disheartened Jax to leave the area wishing he could have gone about things differently. Jax began to see Alex as a nuisance and a parasite, no longer wanting to spend resources on him. Leaving him with no other choice, Jax was determined to put Alex out of his misery. This made Jax driven to conduct an incredibly potent syringe full of black tar heroin and he would later leave it on Alex's dining room table with an apology letter for the fights they've had prior. Lacking any sort of suspicion, Alex shoots himself with the dirty syringe which left him in a drug induced coma. Death Dodger Like a miracle, Samuel had gone to visit the apartment as he still kept the keys to it. Despite not speaking to Alex in years, he wondered about the life Alex had lived since his departure. What Samuel found was Alex lying on the ground, almost lifeless with his eyes wide open and mouth gaping. He dialed 911 and got Alex into emergency care. If it was not for Samuel, Alex would've died that night. Samuel would visit Alex in the hospital the very next day with a sober and somber Alex scratching at his patched arm. The two would exchange words of regret with how they've wasted their lives, Samuel recommends Alex goes to rehab and gets his life fixed as he too almost lost his life. It took months for Alex to consider what Samuel said. After he recovered, Alex's life was in a state of limbo and a deep desire to return to drugs.. Although reluctant at first, Alex did sign himself into rehab; only to end escaping rehab and being forced back in. Alex found himself back in the clutches of alcoholism. The hunger he had for harder drugs would drive him to drink hard liquor and do so frequently. With the help of Samuel, he does commit to rehab and puts down the bottle in time. During this period he ends up falling in love with a former Xanax addict named Sarah Reid. They started very slow, but were a quintessential part to overcoming drug addiction for eachothers lives. Now the couple was released from rehab in 1995 and would settle in Sarah's paternal household until they got their lives sorted. Alex quickly adjusts himself to life outside of rehab as he signs himself into a gym and submits an application to work as a part time mechanic under the much more robust Steel Touch Vehicle Repair company. He was accepted and began working on bikes for the local MCs in Seattle before eventually moving up and working on cars. During his time as a mechanic, he would meet his old friend Edward again as a biker fresh out of military service and the two would quickly become friends again. His work ethic and spacious spending allowed him to later buy a cheap apartment in downtown Seattle that he would share with his long term girlfriend Sarah. To ensure that he stood off drugs, Alex would join various low end counseling sessions with former addicts to vent out his former addictions. Retribution Isn't Free Life was finally going right for Alex. He was in love, he kicked his addictions hard, and he was making small progress to making himself a better man. No matter how righteous his path was, Alex knew he couldn't escape his past. As Alex's life was getting better, Jax's was getting worse. In the time Alex spent in rehab, Jax presumed Alex died from the overdose. Despite accepting that he 'killed' Alex, he was driven by grief and regret over the incident which led him to burning down the entire apartment Alex used to stay in. Jax was being seen as a major weakness in his gang. Because of how much money Jax spent maintaining Alex's livelihood, his previous merciful behavior, and higher police crackdowns on his operations, the Typhon gang deemed that Jax was no longer beneficial to their wealth and power. This led to Jax having his resources hemorrhaged and being forced to work his way back into power. Something snapped in Jax after he 'killed' Alex and lost his respect, he would do immoral things such as shoot children for bearing witness to a drug deal and becoming paranoid of all around him. Jax became cold, calculating, and vengeful. Things worsened for him when he found out that Alex had numerous sightings around the Downtown Seattle area despite his perceptions of killing Alex. The realization of Alex's survival was devastating for Jax, it was seen as a critical failure on his behalf and Jax was driven to make Alex suffer for the debt and pain he and his gang had endured. It all led to Jax tracking down Alex while he was on a cigarette break away from his job. Jax ordered his men to kidnap Alex and take him to an abandoned shop in the lower levels of Pike Place Market where they would torture Alex and force him to comply to the new rules set by Jax. Originally driven to kill Alex, Jax held back because he thought nothing would degrade Alex more than returning to a past life of crime and drugs. Jax demands Alex pushes his drug product and track down debtors that owe Typhon money. Alex fought back to disagree but it was to no avail as Jax threatened the life of Sarah and would follow this threat up with a live camera displaying a video of Alex's parents' home in Tacoma. Jax was not going to relent until he absolutely broke his old friend. Seeing no way out, Alex agreed to the stiupulations set by Jax. Alex would once again become a drug pusher, thief, and felon inadvertently becoming a target in the crosshairs of a certain federal agent. Category:Protagonists Category:Major Characters Category:Characters Category:Criminals